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The Week in Perspective OPINION Obituaries, Weather B WASHINGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER 11, 1966 Dead End Awaits the Black Power Road EDITORIAL The arrest of Stokely Carmichael and two o,f his SNCC lieutenants on charges of inciting last week's riot in Aitlanta may ma;rk a turning point in what .appears to be a struggle for supremacy between the moderate and the extremist elements in the civil rights movement. The importance of the decision by Altlanta's Mayor Allen, who has taken a strong lead in behalf of Negro rights, lies in one simple fact. Public officials, assuming thait the requisite proof is in hand, must be willing to prosecute a Carmichael or anyone else where a serious offense is involved. If for a political reason or some other reason they will not take firm action against a leader, how can they expect those in .the lower echelons to respecit and obey the law? And, of at least equal importance, why should anyone suppose that the moderate civil rights leaders will speak out and act against violence if the civil authorities are unwilling to do so? This is a testing year, a year in which events may determine whether good sense oc "black power" in its exitreme manifesta.tions will carry the day. It will be tragic if, because of weak knees in cdlty hall, it should be made to appear that the rock-thrower and the Molotov cocktail are the wave of the future. There is risk of oversimplification in discussing the moderate as opposed to the extremist wings. There ts good rearon to believe that a very large majoriity of Negroes do not support and are even opposed to the extremist tactics. This does not necessarily mean, however, that all moderates will condemn the extremists out of hand. Some of them may even derive a certadn vicarious saJtisfaction from the excesses of a Carmichael m- an Adam Clayton Powell, even though they know in their hearts tha t an appeal to black power, for exa mple, can eventually lead only to a dead-end street as far as any perma- gation o,f last month's trouble in the Anacostia area is a case in poinit. That affair, involving a clash between Negroes and police, has been under study by a group of prominent citizens appointed by Commissioner Tobriner. Its co-chairman is Sterling Tucker, a respected Negro leader. The study group has reached no conclus ions. In fact, it is just beginning the job of drafting its report. Yet Adam Clayton Powell, whose position in Congress entitles one to expect something better from him, has charged into print with the accusation that the investigation is a "whitewash" and that the committee has too many "mild-mannered Negroes." Following this lead, Julius Hobson, who heads the group known as ACT, paid his respects to "pasteurized Negroes" on the committee who, he said, would sell other Negroes short "for a few pieces of silver." To the extent that anyone in Washington takes Powell and Hobson seriously, this sort of demagogic prejudgment is as harmful as it is outrageous. And it should not be allowed to go unchallenged. Although not aimed specifically at the Powell-Hobson combination, the executive board of the District chapter of the NAACP has just apl)Toved a resolution which is a reflection of responsible thinking by moderate leadership. The resolution, offered by H. Carl Moultrie, president of the local branch, said that the NAACP "must condemn with equal vigor the gaithering of crowds to protest the arrest of an individual, or individuals, as it does any form of police brutality." If witnesses think the police are guilty of brutality in making an arrest, the resolution continued, there are appropriate avenues, including the NAACP, through which corrective action can be sought. But "violence on the part of a person, or persons, or groups of persons, must be unequivocally condemned." The resolution ended with an expression of hope that "all other organizations do the same as we in calling for law and order." So fair the call from other organizations has been considerably less than deafening. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, however, has just denounced "black power" in any contexit of violence. As the struggle within the civil rights movement shapes up, and if public alllthortit!es follow Atlanta's example in cracking down on violence and incitement to violence, the country should hear before long from other moderate voices. For if one thing 1s clear, it is thait future J)Togress in civil rights depends upon co-operation within the framework of law by whites and Negroes whose dedication to equal treatment and equal opportunity is genuine raither than opportunis-tic. If anyone doubts this, let him look ait what is happening to the 1966 civil rights bill in the Senate. There certainly 1s nothing to be gained in the future by following those who think or who pretend to think of progress in t erms of black power, and who talk nonsense about burning down the city to get what they want . An impm-tant thing for everyone to remember 1s that gains can be lost. And one way to reverse the national mood which has produced so many very substantial civil rights gains is to enlist an army under the racist banner of hotheads who want the Negro to go it alone. 1 'Trouble I got, man-what I want is progress!' nent advancement of civil rights is concerned. In this connection, it is interesting to note the results of a recent survey conducted by a respected polling agency in Watts, Harlem, Chicago and Baltimore. The questions were asked by trained Negro pollsters. And the responses revealed that most Negroes, even in the ghettos, want pretty much the same things that most white people want. They want be r housing. Not the principal surprisingly, since they viotims, they are worried a; ut crime, and they are more interes adequate police protection than i talk about police brutality. They want ~ir children to have a sound, disciplined e~ ucation. In Harlem only 2 percent of those interviewed said that school integration was their grearoest problem. The real educational problem, in the majm-1ty opinion, is the pre&ffllg need for better neighborhood schools. Again, a cautionary note is in order. It does not necessarlly follow from the survey findings that most of the people in the ghettos are against violence in pursuit of their reasonable objectives., In Watts, :for example, 48.4 percent of those interviewed think the rioting there helped their chances foil" equality in jobs, schools and housing. Only 23.8 percent believe the rioting was harmful to ruttainment of thlis objective. The obvious inference from this ts that the demagogue, the rac1st-1n-reverse, will find his best opportunity in the ghettos and that thl1s 1s why he makes his major pitoh there. It should be borne in mind, however, thait the ghetto is not synonymous With the Negro commundity in the U'nited States. Many Negroes do not live in ghettos. The moderaite Negro leader, however, has a responsibilit y to help allev:Jate the conditions in the ghetto. And he also has a responsibility to stand up and be counted in oppositMon to those who seek to exploit the distress 1n .the ghettos for purposes of their own-from motives which are a,t best dubious and which in the long run can only retard the drive of the Negro for his equal and rightful place in the Ame:i:ican society. Here in Washington, the investi- �